June 1, 1967: The Beatles Release "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

June 1, 1967: The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It wasn't the first "concept album," but it has been called the greatest album ever released. Certainly, it changed the way rock and roll music was recorded.

The influence of drugs on the band is apparent. Fortunately, you don't have to be high -- or tripping -- to enjoy it.

That month, Paul McCartney, The Beatles' bass guitarist, and secondary songwriter along with rhythm guitarist John Lennon, was going to turn 25. Two days after that, Brian Wilson, the bass guitarist and main songwriter for The Beach Boys, also turned 25. And the two men were in competition with each other.

At the end of 1965, The Beatles released Rubber Soul, a (mostly) softer, more contemplative album, which experimented with non-rock instruments. Lead guitarist George Harrison used it to introduce the sitar, a stringed instrument from India, into rock. Rock historian Dave Marsh once wrote that Rubber Soul proved that The Beatles would still have become stars even if they had never recorded a single uptempo song, although half the songs on the album were uptempo. In mid-1966, The Beatles went further, with Revolver.

But it was mainly Rubber Soul that inspired Wilson to create what appeared to be The Beach Boys' magnum opus, Pet Sounds. (It would have been undeniable as their greatest work, had "Good Vibrations" been on it, but that came afterwards.) Paul heard Pet Sounds, and knew that it was on now, chaps: He had to top it.

So Sgt. Pepper was more his album than any that had come before, but all 4 of them got their chances to shine. Side One:

* "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Written by Paul, who sang lead, it created an alternate identity for the band, suggesting a pre-rock persona.

* "With a Little Help from My Friends." Written by Paul, it was sung by drummer Ringo Starr, in persona as "the one and only Billy Shears." It would be sung by Joe Cocker at Woodstock, and his version would become a hit single, and the theme song to the ABC nostalgia series The Wonder Years. Richie Havens, who also sang at Woodstock, called it "My favorite song in the whole universe." He would later have a hit with George's song "Here Comes the Sun."

* "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Perhaps the ultimate psychedelic song. It was pointed out to John that the initials were "LSD." He claimed he didn't notice that, saying that the idea came from a drawing his 3-year-old son Julian had made and named. Nobody believed him. Years later, Julian found the drawing, and proved to the world that his father was telling the truth.

In 1974, Elton John would cover it, with John playing guitar on the session, and it would hit Number 1. Personally, I like the Elton version better.

* "Getting Better." Typical of them, Paul sang, "It's getting better," while the more pessimistic John followed with, "It couldn't get much worse."

* "Fixing a Hole." This Paul song has been said to be about heroin. He's always denied it.

* "She's Leaving Home." Paul's song about the generation gap.

* "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" John's song about a circus. The line, "And of course, Harry the Horse dances the waltz" led some people to think that was about heroin.

Side Two:

* "Within You Without You." George's only song on the album.

* "When I'm Sixty-Four." The one song on the album that sounds like it could have been recorded by Sgt. Pepper's Band, had they actually existed. Paul wrote it. Sadly, only he and Ringo would make it to age 64.

* "Lovely Rita." Paul's song about a fling with a metermaid.

* "Good Morning Good Morning." No way John could get away with saying this song wasn't about drugs.

* "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)."

* "A Day in the Life." Without this song, the longest on the album at 5 minutes and 38 seconds, this would still have been a great album. But any pretense to being the greatest ever is dependent upon it. John wrote 3 verses: One about a car crash that killed a rich man (based on the real-life death of Guinness heir Tara Browne -- yes, Tara was a man), one about a war film (John had recently filmed scenes for the World War I picture How I Won the War), and one about "four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire."

Between the 2nd and 3rd verses was an orchestra's crescendo, an alarm clock, and a middle-eight by Paul about getting up and going to work, which may have inspired Prince to write "Manic Monday" years later.

Producer George Martin conducted a full orchestra for it, and the closing piano note seems to drift away forever...

Total time 39 minutes and 36 seconds. In less than 40 minutes, the men who had been "the lovable Mop Tops" had changed music forever.

The cover showed The Beatles in old-style military band uniforms: John, in yellow, with a French horn; Paul, in blue, with an English horn (not a clarinet, as is often erroneously thought); George, in orange, with a piccolo; and Ringo, in pink, with a trumpet. They were surrounded with wax figures of their early selves, and photos of many celebrities. As John sang in "In My Life," some were dead and some were living.

Some choices seemed odd. They could have chosen the recently-defrocked Heavyweight Champion of the World, Muhammad Ali, whom they met in Miami right before he fought Sonny Liston for the title in 1964, and had become a symbol of rebellion. Instead, they chose Liston, who had refused to meet with them. They could have chosen Marilyn Monroe. Instead, they chose the actress billed as the British version of her, Diana Dors. John chose several artists, and George chose some Indian spiritualists, that were not well known.

John wanted pictures of both Jesus of Nazareth and Adolf Hitler. George wanted Mohandas Gandhi. Management refused all three, fearing a backlash, especially given John's "We're more popular than Jesus now" comment of the previous year. Including Hitler would have offended the markets of both America and Europe, and including Gandhi would have offended the market of India, still a big buyer of British products.

Of the living people included, only one initially refused: Actress Mae West. She said, "What would I be doing in a Lonely Hearts Club?" She relented after all four Beatles wrote her personal letters expressing their deep admiration for her work. The agent for Bowery Boys actor Leo Gorcey, demanded a $400 fee, the only living person to demand money for it. Beatles manager Brian Epstein refused, and Gorcey was the only figure to be airbrushed off the cover.

The album also included several "clues" in the later "Paul Is Dead" rumor: Paul's horn is black, while the others are holding brass instruments; a hand over Paul's head, a "death sign"; a series of flowers forming a guitar seems to form the words "PAUL?" complete with question mark; the photo on the back cover showing Paul's back turned to the camera (he wasn't available that day, and roadie Mal Evans stood in for him); and clues as to the alleged car crash that killed Paul the previous year, including the line from "A Day in the Life," "He blew his mind out in a car," and the alleged time of the crash being mentioned in "She's Leaving Home": "Wednesday morning at five o'clock."

It became the album of the Summer of 1967, "the Summer of Love." And it has been hailed by many as the greatest rock album of all time. (Then again, some people don't think it was even the Beatles' best album, although they can't agree on whether that's Rubber Soul, Revolver, or the last one, Abbey Road.) And, from this point onward, any band wanting to do their best album ever would be said to be attempting "their Sgt. Pepper." Few have ever approached that height, and none has ever matched it.

All 4 Beatles retained ownership of their Sgt. Pepper uniforms, although Ringo donated his to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland.

The cover has been parodied many times. Later in the year, The Rolling Stones did so with Their Satanic Majesties Request. The next year, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention did so with We're Only In It for the Money. Rolling Stone magazine did so with its 1,000th issue in 2006, which made sense, since, later in 1967, they put Lennon on the cover of their 1st issue.

In 1978, a film titled Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, with the "Beatle" roles taken by Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. Aside from covers of Beatle songs, the only true Beatle connection was their 1969 Let It Be collaborator, Billy Preston, playing "the one and only Billy Shears." The film tanked.

In 1978, Paul Gambaccini ranked it 1st on his list in his book Critic's Choice: Top 200 Albums, based on his poll of rock critics. In 1987, Rolling Stone celebrated its 20th Anniversary by ranking it 1st on its list of "The 100 Best Albums of the last Twenty Years." In 1993, and again in 2012, the magazine ranked it 1st on a list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time." In 1994, Colin Larkin ranked it 1st in his book All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 1998, British music store chain HMV and network Channel 4 released a poll showing it voted the best album of all time.

Time passed, and times changed. Q magazine listed it 3rd on a list of "The Music That Changed the World" in 2004, and 5th on a list of "The 40 Greatest Psychedelic Albums of All Time" in 2005. And in 2020, Rolling Stone dropped it all the way to 24th. It is possible that there were a few better albums released between 1967 and 2020, but there is no way that there have been 23 better albums released between 2012, Rolling Stone's last time ranking it 1st, and 2020. Come on, man!

In the 1st-ever episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played John Lennon in his yellow Sgt. Pepper uniform, against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as newscaster Bill O'Reilly. The matchup didn't seem to make much sense, as there was no commonality, and the only contrast was in politics, as Lennon was seen as left and O'Reilly as far right. Unfortunately, Peter did not attempt to imitate John's voice, sounding nothing like a man from Liverpool. The least he could have done was tell O'Reilly, as John said to some people in A Hard Day's Night, "Yer a swine!"

As of June 1, 2022, there are 5 surviving people among the figures shown on the cover: Paul, Ringo, Bob Dylan, doo-wop singer Dion DiMucci, and sculptor Larry Bell, included because John admired his work.

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June 1, 1967 was a Thursday. Football, basketball and hockey were out of season. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 4-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Mike Cuellar, the Cuban curveball master not yet a Baltimore Oriole, outpitched Tom Seaver.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3, although he drew a walk. Rod Carew and Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4. The American League Pennant would come down to the last day of the season, on which these same 2 teams would play, each still having a chance.

* The Washington Senators beat the California Angels, 1-0 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Camilo Pascual, who had been with the "Old Senators" in 1960-61 when they moved to become the Twins, pitched a 4-hit shutout for the "New Senators."

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-6 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Billy Williams hit 2 home runs, and Ernie Banks went 3-for-5, but it wasn't enough. Pete Rose went 1-for-2 with 3 walks, and Tony Pérez hit a home run. Johnny Bench would be called up to the Reds on August 28, about 3 months later.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. John O'Donoghue, later to become famous for appearing in Jim Bouton's book Ball Four, not only outpitched Denny McLain, but hit a home run off him. Al Kaline went 1-for-3.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Bobby Tolan won it for the Cards with an RBI triple in the bottom of the 10th inning. For the Braves, Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 with a home run, and Joe Torre went 1-for-5.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-1 at Candlestick Park. Gaylord Perry outpitched former Giant Juan Pizarro. Jesus Alou and Dick Dietz hit home runs, while Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with a walk, and Willie McCovey pinch-hit a double that drove in 2 runs.

* And the New York Yankees, the Baltimore Orioles, the Chicago White Sox and the the Kansas City Athletics were not scheduled to play.